Mr. Martin Shanahan:

I have a couple of comments and responses to what the Deputy has said. First, on Brexit, there are both challenges and opportunities from an IDA perspective. It is not all upside. There will be more investment, and we have seen some of that already as a result of Brexit, but 13% of the IDA portfolio is exposed to the UK in terms of exports. Some €19 billion euro worth of exports out of our client companies is to UK. That represents a challenge and a risk. It is a two-way street, as it is, obviously, for indigenous companies.

In terms of the challenge of residential housing and the impact it is having, I would say in the recent past it has not posed us a difficulty in marketing Ireland, which I think was the Deputy's question. Ireland is still seen as very attractive, as evidenced by even just this week the number of announcements that have been made, such as Veritas announcing more than 200 jobs, Microsoft, whom the Deputy herself has referenced, announcing this morning an additional 200 jobs, and Fidelity International yesterday announcing 280 jobs.

If I just take the Fidelity International and Microsoft examples, Fidelity International has added 250-odd posts in the past 14 months, so I think the companies are comfortable that they can still scale in Ireland. Similarly, Microsoft this morning confirmed that it has fulfilled 80% of its previous recruitment drive which was announced less than a year ago for 500 people, so the evidence on the ground would suggest there are a lot of good things happening.

Undoubtedly, residential housing is an issue. The Deputy asked about our interaction with Government. Obviously, we engage with Government regularly on this. It is keenly aware of the issue. It is a priority and I have engaged directly with the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, on it.